


Love Really Bites

by MaggicSorceress



Series: Maggic's Undertale Mermaid AU [7]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, Blind Character, But when is he not?, Geno is in denial, M/M, Meet-Cute???, Pre-Relationship, Reaper is pretty and Geno doesn't know how to deal, They are Both Dorks, here's some more mergays!, no this is more like meet-stupid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:15:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,658
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25567279
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaggicSorceress/pseuds/MaggicSorceress
Summary: Of all the things Geno was expecting to encounter in the darkness, this was not one of them.
Relationships: AfterDeath - Relationship, Geno/Reaper, Reaper/Geno
Series: Maggic's Undertale Mermaid AU [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1850452
Comments: 12
Kudos: 72





	Love Really Bites

Geno was lost.

This wasn’t a rare occasion, far from it, but this time he would fully admit to himself that he was very, _very,_ lost.

In the darkness of the deep-sea, you really had to keep an eye out for things to identify your surroundings with, whether that was a peculiarly shaped rock or a sea anemone. But he had thought, in his hunger driven brain, to swim just a _little_ bit further out of the ravine than he normally travelled and had gotten ridiculously turned around as a result.

The darkness seemed far vaster outside of the ravine, stretching on endlessly on all sides of him. Even the ocean floor seemed to blur in a way that made it seem nearly impossible for Geno to tell just how far away it was. He swallowed down the lump of uneasiness in his throat and decided against swimming further out into the darkness, opting to just stay where he was and wait for what he had ventured out here for.

People who said silence was peaceful never spent a long time in it. The ravine in which Geno resided was quiet, sure, but there was always the slightest sound, the slightest shifting of rock or the movement of a passing fish, or occasionally a mer. But out here, where the canyon gave way to an openness that seemed oppressive, suffocating, the silence was deafening. It seemed to even suck in the sound of Geno’s own breaths, leaving behind nothing in their wake, and Geno found himself growing more and more on edge the longer he floated there, anxiously waiting for something to appear out of the dark, for something to brush passed him, so he could get something to eat and _get the heck out of here._

There were a lot of things Geno was expecting from the darkness at that point.

Singing was not one of them.

It was more humming than an actual song, but it carried in a low melodious sort of way that had Geno freezing, shivers running up and down his spine. The sound came from somewhere distant, somewhere far to his right if his hearing served him well enough and, although it lacked lyrics or any sort of set tune, it was a rather pleasant sound. It was haunting to hear in the silence, but it radiated no maliciousness, seeming only to be created out of pure boredom.

But perhaps that was just what whatever this thing was wanted Geno to think, so he refused to let his guard down…

The sound was quite pretty though, so he allowed himself to enjoy it as he stayed where he was, waiting still and silently. There were times, few and far in between, where the humming would stop and the silence would return, as if the cause of the sound was pausing and listening, before the song would start up again. It only served to make Geno more wary.

So, when finally he felt something softly brush past his arm, and had twisted, launching himself into it and biting down harsh and quick, it was a completely justified reaction.

He just wasn’t expecting the humming to stop as whatever caused it cried out in pain.

“Hey!” A voice exclaimed shortly after. “Let go! I’m not food!”

Geno was suddenly very aware of the fact that blood had yet to flood into his mouth, and he was instead made aware of the slimy almost rubbery texture of whatever he had currently bitten into, and instantly dislodged his teeth from it, almost gagging at the foul taste left in his mouth. He didn’t, but only because he was just a tad bit mortified that he had accidentally attacked someone. Geno decided to keep quiet and not say anything to give away his presence, but soon threw that thought away when he heard the voice mutter something to itself, though he could really only make out the word ‘stupid’.

“Hey!” Geno defended. “I am not stupid! It’s just fucking _dark_ out here and I’m hungry, damn it!”

“Holy shit!” The voice replied. “Is there someone there?”

“No duh!” Geno shouted back before he quieted down, embarrassment growing. “…sorry…for biting you…”

The voice, to Geno’s surprise, laughed. “Don’t worry about it! I’m kind of used to it, but normally it’s sharks and not another mer.”

Geno tried not to be worried over how the other mer’s voice was getting steadily closer, but he still found himself tensing.

“Yeah…” Geno said, trying to distract himself. “I can’t imagine there’s a lot of them out here.”

“There really isn’t.” The voice said, and Geno got his first glimpse of the mer as he drifted eerily out of the darkness. “Are you over here somewhere?”

The mer was a jellyfish, but he was unlike any of the ones Geno had previously seen. The other’s skin was jarringly pale, in a way that almost made him glow in the darkness, and it only seemed to intensify the darkness of the bell that hung heavily over his head and his tentacles. The jellyfish’s tentacles were odd too, incredibly long and almost fabric-like, with the way they drifted and billowed behind and underneath him. He also seemed to have tentacles extending from around his elbow area and drifting down into the darkness below. Geno watched him swim past him for a moment, completely stunned, before he thought to answer the mer’s question.

“I’m…right beside you…?” Geno said, confused over how the jellyfish hadn’t seen him yet. At the first hint of Geno’s voice, the other’s head whirled around to stare in the direction he had heard it from.

“Oh!” The mer gasped, changing the direction of his course. “Sorry, I can’t see.”

“That’s alright.” Geno said. “It’s dark down here.”

“No, I mean,” The mer said as laughter edged into his voice, “I _literally_ can’t see.”

Geno blinked in confusion, and it was only when the jellyfish grew close enough and raised its head, void-like eyes gazing somewhere past Geno’s own, that Geno made the connection. Just as he was about to start sputtering apologies, the other mer spoke again.

“You’re over here, right?” He clarified, floating only about an arm’s length away from Geno.

“Y-yeah…” Geno said.

The other smiled kindly, although the creepiness of his empty stare did nothing but make the grin look more menacing, and stuck out a hand for Geno to shake.

“My name’s Reaper.” The jellyfish said. “It’s nice to meet you! Oh, and before you ask, don’t worry, I don’t sting.”

Geno, although he _hadn’t_ been about to ask, felt slightly relieved and reached out to shake Reaper’s hand.

“I’m Geno.” He said. “It’s nice to meet you too, Reaper.”

Reaper’s grin widened when he returned the gesture and, this time, it didn’t make his gaze look quite as menacing. In fact, it almost softened it with the way it pushed up the other’s cheeks and made his nose crinkle.

“So,” Reaper began, starting up a pleasant conversation, “I’m guessing you live in the ravine a little ways from here?”

~

Geno hadn’t been expecting Reaper to be such a good person to talk to, but maybe Geno just didn’t have many friends down here.

Scratch that, he didn’t have _any_ friends down here.

Friends always felt like a liability to him, and he had been through enough shit to not want to let anyone that close, but…

There were times when he found himself making an exception for Reaper.

The jellyfish was annoying, and loved to pester him whenever they managed to bump into each other, but Reaper was also…funny, and endearing when he wanted to be, and eventually, though Geno had no idea how long it had been since he had met the other mer, he grew to genuinely care about Reaper and, as it always happened, that caring steadily evolved into _something else_ that Geno very stubbornly ignored.

Until one day.

They were sitting together on the ocean floor, side by side, with their backs pressed up against the rough wall of the ravine, when Geno’s thoughts got the best of him and he decided to voice something that had been on his mind for quite some time.

“Do you ever just…feel purposeless?” Geno asked. “Like, there’s no point to your existence because all you do is the same thing day in and day out? Like you’re moving but not getting anywhere? Like you’re useless?”

There was silence for a long while after Geno had finished speaking and, for a moment, he worried that he’d scared Reaper into silence.

But then the jellyfish spoke.

“Sometimes.” Reaper said, voice soft and rumbling as he stared blankly into the darkness ahead of them. “I feel useless a _lot_ of the time, actually, but…I like to keep believing that one day something will change, and it won’t be so… _repetitive_ anymore. Existence, I mean.”

“How do you know that things will change though?”

“I don’t.” Reaper said with a shrug. He went silent again, getting lost in his own thoughts, and Geno watched a smile grow on his face before he turned his head, tilting his face in Geno’s direction. “But if I stopped believing, I wouldn’t have gotten the chance to meet you. And that’s a change I don’t _ever_ want to take back.”

Geno’s heart thundered in response to Reaper’s statement, and he found himself curling stubbornly around the sound, hoping to calm it even as blood rushed to his face.

“Oh, shut up!” Geno said. “You’re such a weirdo…”

Reaper’s following laugh did nothing to quell the pounding in his chest, rather, it made it worse, but…

Geno liked the sound of Reaper’s laughter.

And something, deep down inside of him, wanted to hear it more often.

_Fuck…_ Geno thought, hiding his face in his hands and fighting the twitching of the corners of his lips. _I’m in deep…literally…_

**Author's Note:**

> Reaper, singing: Love me, love me, say that you love me~  
> Reaper: Fool me, fool me, oh how you do me~  
> Geno: *bites him*  
> Reaper, still singing: What the frick was that~?!  
> ANYWAY  
> Hope you guys liked it! Comments and kudos always give me the warm fuzzies! <3  
> -Maggic


End file.
